AIBU to worry about redundancy and managing bills if unemployed?

[Carlie97]

We've been told that people need to put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy and if there aren't enough people that do this, it will then go to compulsory redundancies.

I've not been there a long, long time and would only come out with around £7,000 which would last me approximately four months of paying bills and a bit for shopping. Certainly no luxuries. If I was made redundant and didn't find a job in those four months, I'd have to claim benefits and having worked it out I'd be entitled to around £800 per month. I know that rent would be partially covered by housing benefit, but I'd have to pay an additional £400 or so. I have debts from escaping a relationship, but these total over £500 alone. I'm on a decent wage now which covers it all, but my total outgoings (bills and debt with no luxuries in there) total £1,600 per month. If I am made redundant and don't find another job, how am I going to cope? I'm seriously worried so much.

You start by submitting a claim for benefits on day 1 of unemployment rather than waiting until your redundancy payout is used up. (It means your national insurance contributions are paid).
You set a time limit for getting THE job and at the end of this period if you still haven't got THE job, you apply for ANY job that pays the bills.
Consider temping through an agency.
Get help with your debts from CAB

You wouldn’t have to spend the £7000 before you can claim. You can claim if you have savings up to £16000, but obviously the amount you receive would be reduced.

Look into new style JSA immediately if you are made redundant as it's not affected by savings etc. It's based on NI payments I think.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance

Can you start saving a few hundred a month now?

Are your debts loans or credit cards? Are they on a good low interest rate or 0% offer?
It would be helpful to get your payments down but if you apply for anything new now they are likely to ask if you know of any changes to your job.

If your income isn't sufficient to pay all your outgoings you must prioritise your rent/council tax/utility bills and food over unsecured debts. If you don't pay a debt for a few months it should be defaulted. At this point the interest is frozen and you should be able to negotiate a small payment amount based on what is affordable within your budget. This process will affect your credit rating so is damaging if you need credit in the future or work in a profession where they check your credit.

If you need debt advice you can contact stepchange or Christians Against Poverty (CAP) you don't need to be religious.

Hope your job is OK and enough people want voluntary redundancy.

Thank you everyone. If I'm made redundant it's likely to be in the next month so no time to save.

I have loans and credit cards and all are high rate unfortunately. Gosh, how have i got myself into this mess?

Make a plan now. I didn't think it would happen to me but it did and I am still looking for work over a year later. Even Tesco and the pub turned me down due to being "over qualified", the NHS said I had no transferable skills for them (I was a project manager). Office jobs have 100s applicants it's absolutely mental! It's the worst job market I've seen since 2010!!

I am applying for everything and anything ☹️

I'm terrified of losing my home.

Is the £7k the full payment? Or is it the redundancy payment, and you’d be due PILON and holiday pay too?

Its a horrible, stressful choice to make.

You haven't got yourself into the mess, it's the company's doing
Try not to worry too much, it may well be that there are enough volunteers for the redundancy package on offer. People who are nearing retirement age could decide to use the payment to support them to retire earlier than they had planned people who have a good idea for making a hobby pay could take this as the push they need to go it alone. All sorts of things can happen in a redundancy situation.
Are you a union member? Were union reps included in the consultation? They should have been, by law.

If the redundancies affect your area of a larger business you could ask about redeployment to another part of the business (if they speak to you about redundacy).

I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I hope you find the job of your dreams soon.

The £7k is just redundancy pay. As redundancies would likely happen end of April/May and it's a new holiday year, would I still be paid extra for holidays? Am I best not to take leave early April as planned and save them incase of redundancy to get more money?

Yes, the company legally has to do everything it can to mitigate against compulsory redundancies. So redeploying to another department/branch can be one way to do that.

How many redundancies do they need to make? Are there any older colleagues who've been around a long time who might see it as an early retirement with an extra lump sum? When I went through it they got enough volunteers and it was almost all people in that category

It's a small organisation, so no opportunity of deployment elsewhere.

If you are not made redundant see if you can get any 0% balance transfer cards. Even if a card offers you only a couple of thousand limit transfer what you can. Chances are after a few months of payments they will raise the limit snd give you more offers.

If you are paying credit cards at high interest I expect a large chunk of your monthly payment is just interest so when this redundancy crisis passes take a good look at these and see what you can do to reduce the interest.

Your own bank might offer you a good rate on a loan large enough to pay off your existing loans and credit cards. Again you will need to wait until after redundacy situation is sorted as you will have to declare that you know of no issues with your job. We've took loans with our own banks applying within the banking app.

Definitely transfer your debts to a 0% credit card if you can, is there a reason you've not already done this? Is the £500 the total debt or the monthly payment?

Start job hunting now and if you do get made redundant sign on with as many recruitment agencies as you can. You might be able to get work covering people taking leave over the spring and summer.

Don’t panic. I’m single and it happened to me twice in 6 months! First time I got a job to start 3 days after my retention period ended
they made me and a load of others redundant after 8 weeks. I was really stressing then
got a new job and ended up in total only being unemployed for 9 days

Thank you for all your advice and sharing your experiences. I'm just terrified I won't be able to pay my rent and lose my lovely home. I've worked hard to settle here and for the first time in years my mental health has been OK.

You should probably receive PILON (payment in lieu of notice) - how long is your notice? In your shoes, I’d hang onto that holiday, as they’d have to pay you for the proportion you’d been entitled to but didn’t take.

Brush up your CV, and start looking now. Get in touch with agencies if that’s applicable to your career, and see what you can get. Best case scenario, you have something else lined up, and a lump of money you can create a safety net with, whilst also paying some of your debt.

Best of luck - you’ve got this